Authored by: Suri Wang Art by: Carla Hu "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and most inhuman because it often results in physical death." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1966) While healthcare is seen as a benevolent and nonjudgemental field, health professionals often exhibit implicit biases (unconscious biases based on perceptions and stereotypes) against patients that are part of marginalized groups based on race, economic status, and ge

Authored by: Sumedha Shastry Art by: Joshua Choi Giving birth takes an immense toll on a woman’s life. Not only does it require a significant amount of time to properly prepare for the baby, but it also takes a toll on her body. With all the check-up appointments, pre-birth classes, post-birth lactation consultations, and other such appointments, the mother-to-be must essentially put her life on hold for nine months in preparation for the day that the baby comes. After the st

Authored by: Sophie Erb-Watson Art by: Ava Shi One of the most durable legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic is the acceleration of healthcare workforce burnout and attrition. While many pandemic-era reforms targeted access or delivery modalities, the collapse of workforce stability has emerged as a pressing structural threat. In the United States, burnout, early retirement, and declining labor force participation among healthcare workers surged during and after the pandemic, wor

Authored by: Sophie Elijovich Art by: Jane Wang “I was told that I was experiencing psychosomatic pain stemming from guilt for sinning with boys,” [1]. Those were the words of Melanie, a woman who spent ten years in excruciating pain before finally being diagnosed with endometriosis that her new surgeon “said was one of the worst cases of endometriosis in a young person she had ever seen” [1]. Another victim, Truzane, who was eventually diagnosed with microvascular heart dise

Authored by: Nora Sheu Art by: Sophia Liu Across the United States, prison healthcare systems are chronically underfunded and understaffed. Nearly 2 million prisoners in the United States are less healthy than the general population, an urgent problem that must be addressed as the number continues to grow [1]. A study examining the 170,215 Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) inmates incarcerated between August 1997 and July 1998 revealed inmates’ increased risk for in

Authored by: Josh Chelliah Art by: Caitlin Sweeney The United States' neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) represents a global leader in the advanced care of newborns, with highly specialized technology and multidisciplinary teams that have markedly improved survival for babies born extremely premature and/or with medically complex conditions. However, despite these clinical advances, significant challenges remain. Extensive research has made it clear that substantial disparit

Authored by: Charlene Lin Art by: Fiona Reilly Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, is a revolutionary approach that tailors medicine to genetic factors, environment, lifestyle, and many more [1]. But what if I told you that many personalized treatments are only precise for people of European descent? Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are at the very core of precision medicine approaches, in which large scale biobank data is used to identify genetic d

Authored by: Castine Hardesty Art by: Stefanie Chen In an age when fresh produce is available year-round and purchasing food has never been made more convenient, it may be easy to believe that food insecurity is a shrinking problem in America. However, the opposite is true for many older Americans. Since the early 2000s, the rate of food insecurity in households with at least one adult over age 60 has more than doubled, and nearly one quarter of all families with older adults

Authored by: Ariana Desai Art by: Carla Hu “These drugs were killing me,” recalled Doug Gresenz, a former U.S. Marine Corps Assaultman who was prescribed over a dozen medications before he lost the ability to walk and was left with permanent brain damage [1]. However, it is not just Doug who is left ruined by these prescriptions, but thousands of other veterans across the country. According to the National Institute of Health, more than 1 in 10 veterans are diagnosed with a s

Authored by: Lexi Waite Art by: Eileen Cho Imagine a cattle farmer in a rural community working in the fields, when they suddenly suffer a medical emergency. An ambulance rushes the farmer to the nearest hospital, but the facility lacks the resources for proper treatment. Now the question becomes: can medical staff arrange a transfer to a more equipped facility in time? While extreme, this scenario highlights the current disparities that exist between urban and rural healthca

Authored by: Reese Visaya Art by: Jane Wang When clinics are hours away and doctors are scarce, how do rural communities get essential medications, vaccinations, and treatments? Many rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa face barriers to receiving quality primary healthcare services due to distance to health facilities, rising care costs, and physician shortages [1]. Primary care is essential for maintaining good health, preventing illness, and the diagnosis and treatment o

Authored by: Emma Davila Art by: Kaitlyn Toung According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries [1]. In 2023, the maternal mortality ratio was 197 deaths per 100,000 live births globally, according to the World Health Organization [2]. It is clear that significant improvements are needed in maternal healthcare quality and access, and community health workers (CHW) may be a poten

Authored by Jizelle Dumayas Art by: Ava Shi It is a typical Sunday morning, and you decide to find a grocery store on your way back from work. This is unfamiliar territory to you, but you are sure that you will encounter a market within the next 3-5 minutes. However, to your surprise, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and now 20 minutes go by, and still you find yourself circling the same side of town looking for any place that would sell fresh, healthy produce. You manage to spot a li

Authored by: Asha Gandreti Art by: Sophia Liu Dementia serves as one of the most pressing public health challenges of the twenty-first century [1]. Currently, over 7 million individuals are living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in the United States, a figure projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050 as the population ages [2]. Unfortunately, despite advances in research and awareness, dementia care systems remain disconnected, often lacking coordination a

Authored by: Autumn Tienauchariya Art by: Andrew Mo When a child with cerebral palsy steers a power wheelchair independently for the first time, something more than mobility occurs. A sense of agency takes hold — an experience of the self as capable, autonomous, and present in the world. Adaptive medical tools and assistive technologies are typically evaluated for their physical effectiveness, but a growing body of research suggests that their psychological consequences are e

Authored by: Zora Agathocleous Art by: Mia Hsu On July 17th, the Senate passed President Trump’s request to rescind $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding. This request, a bill officially known as the Recissions Act of 2025 signed into law on July 24th, is a political device the Trump Administration used to cancel funding previously approved by Congress. This rescissions package was the first to succeed in over 30 years, the last being President George H.W

Authored by: Valentine Kim By the early 2010s, the debt amount of an average dental student had surpassed $200,000 by the time of graduation [1]. Today, this amount has increased to nearly $300,000 [2]. The road to a career in the healthcare industry is long and competitive with over 46% of students reporting concerns of making errors in their job and burnout [3]. However, aside from the mental and academic challenges of the path, the financial burden of the road to dentistry

Authored by: Surabhi Shastry Art by: Stefanie Chen Racial inequities in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and pregnancy-related mortality in the United States are a critical, persistent public health crisis. National data consistently show that Black birthing people face pregnancy-related deaths and SMM at rates three times higher than White birthing people, and these disparities have not shown substantial improvement over time [1]. State-level analyses reveal that the magnitud

Authored by: Sriram Chakravadhanula Art by: Carol Zhang In March 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved GLP-1 medication for heart disease, in addition to its application for diabetes, leading to a massive increase in GLP-1 users. The United States became the largest market for Ozempic and Wegovy supplier, Novo Nordisk, with over 71% of the Company’s drug sales come from the United States[1]. As Senator Warren revealed, Ozempic is priced at $936 in the US

Authored by: Sophie Rinzler Art by: Stefanie Chen From the moment a clinician turns toward a keyboard, something essential is lost: the full gaze, the clarifying nod, the pause that signals undivided attention. As electronic health record (EHR) demands expand, human medical scribes are increasingly replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). Companies like Abridge and Nuance promise to restore clinicians’ focus on patients, reducing burnout and reclaiming time for care. Yet beh